Many businesses, especially those with large numbers of customer accounts, periodically contact the customer by telephone to obtain updated account information, remind the customer of a past due account, collect on delinquent accounts, or conduct other business. Also, some businesses are based primarily or exclusively upon sales conducted via telephone, either in response to a previously mailed catalog or advertisement or from direct solicitation by calling the customer. In such businesses the customer account information is typically stored in a mainframe computer and a copy of the customer account information is placed upon a storage medium such as a disk or a tape. This copy is then installed in another computer for access by operators (customer account, sales or service representatives). In some installations the operator sees a telephone number upon the screen and the number is either manually dialed by the operator or dialed by the operator's terminal in response to one or more keystroke inputs by the operator. The operator must then wait to determine if the call is answered, the called number is busy, is out of service or has been changed, or that there is no answer. Therefore, for each call placed, there may be an elapsed time of one to two minutes wherein the operator is looking at the screen, dialing the number or causing the number to be dialed, and waiting for a response from the called number. Therefore, there is need for a method and an apparatus which automatically dials the call without operator intervention or control and only connects the operator and displays the customer account record, which is resident in the mainframe, if the call is answered, thereby allowing the operator's time to be more effectively used.
In businesses which rely primarily or exclusively upon calls from the customer, an operator must answer the call, determine whether the customer desires to place an order, check on the status of an order or obtain account information. The operator must then obtain the account number from the customer, key in the account number of the terminal, and wait for the customer account information to appear on the screen before any business can be transacted. In this case, for each incoming call, there may be several minutes of time wherein the operator is nonproductive or minimally productive, or if all operators are busy, the calling party hears a busy signal or hears repeated ringing but no answer. Therefore, there is a need for a method and an apparatus for obtaining preliminary customer account information from the customer or automatically determining the calling party's telephone number and account information prior to the call being serviced by an operator.
Typically, the customer account information for business transacted is entered on the previously made copy or retained in a separate file. Therefore, at the end of the day or business session, the changes made in the copy must be incorporated into and consolidated with the customer account information in the mainframe system. If several calls are made and/or received regarding the same customer account during the period of a single day then the account information the operator sees at any time may be incorrect since the account information provided to the operator's terminal may be the information resident within the system controller, which has not yet been updated. In this event the operator must, if possible, call up the files containing information on changes made to this account before any business can be correctly transacted. Again, valuable operator time is wasted in obtaining the most current copy of the customer's account information from the mainframe or system controller, and then updating the most current file containing the changes to the customer account. Therefore, there is a need for a method and an apparatus for online or real time updating of the customer account information in the mainframe so that the operator will have immediate access to the current customer account information without having to search between the mainframe file and the changes file, and for maintaining a copy of any changes made to the customer account information and the status of each call so that, in the event of a problem, the call results and any changes can be traced or duplicated.